A New Purchase!

I had the day off of work last Wednesday and when I woke up I did the usual scroll through Craigslist motorcycle section and I happened on a sparse ad for a "1997 Buell"

I wish I had a screen shot but the ad was something like "1997 Buell Cyclone with carburetor problems"

Well okay a quick search finds a Buell Cyclone had a Harley Davidson 1203 Evo Motor and some trick frame and suspension work....

The bike is north of the city and it's about 1PM so I send the seller a text and tell him I'm on the way (the bike had been posted at 8AM) and he says okay call me when you get to my town. No big deal.

Get to his town (Medford) and give him a ring so I can get the address.

He lives in a nice house with a small driveway and yard. I park my car and walk up the driveway and there it is; in all it's blue 90s glory.

(Not my photos; he added them after I was on my way)

I see in the little red shed he has a 1991 or so Honda VFR750 and a 1996ish Ducati 900SS CR and we get to talking about bikes, not business. I mean there really is something to be said about true motorcyclists especially in this case. Long story short, he bought ALL of those bikes brand new with cash when they came out (including the Buell Cyclone seen here)

Again, during just normal motorcyclist conversation he tells me when he bought the bike new he did all these mods:

CF Bits all over
Hydraulic clutch
Corbin seat (and sent the OEM seat out to be built up with padding)
Aftermarket rear sets (unsure on brand)
Mikuni HSR Carb + K&N filter/intake (He gave me the OEM one too)
Tachometer (Not a factory item on this bike so he brought it to the dealer to have them install an OEM panel and gauge set up)
Steering Damper
Oil Cooler
Bar end mirrors
Penske Shock
Staintuned Exhaust (Never heard of until this bike, he also gave me a V&H in the box)
OEM Buell parts catalog and repair manual (Not a mod but still very helpful)

So if you recall from the sparse ad, it said the bike had carb issues, after asking for clarification he tells me he had a fuel leak and the battery died so he just parked it.

On a side note, if you look a few pages back, the 1998 Honda VFR800 EFI I bought and flipped soon after was bought just a few streets over (it's a small world eh?)

So a few days later I get the thing home

A good friend and I hook a jumper pack up to it. What a pain in the ass! The battery is in the most inconvenient place on earth behind the side cover but under the seat/tank.

It cranks over like a champ.

So we put some fuel in it and try again (previous owner drained the tank and parked it properly with fresh oil)

Sure enough the old girl sputters and roars to life. (Link here https://instagram.com/p/4KSjXjSRqp/)

Get it warmed up and she idles okay. I then threw a new, properly sized battery in it a few days ago and took her for a ride. What a fun experience. I mean tit for tat my CBR900RR would RUIN it in every aspect. But you let out the clutch and the torque just takes you away! You can make a TON of noise and just beat the absolute bag out of it and it runs better!!!

I'm still torn on wether to sell it or not. Please help!

Until next time
See you on the road!

Excuse The Rant

Technology moves on. There really is no doubt about that and motorcycles are no exception. Lately, I've been seeing a lot of videos on the old interweb comparing new sportbikes to old ones; the conclusion is always the same: the 20XX model is a  better performer than the 19XX model.

Well yea. That's pretty obvious, if you're comparing like models. The same can be said for cars. If you take a 19XX Corvette compared to a 20XX model, it's leaps and bounds better. Or a 19XX F1 racer to a 20XX model. But I mean really, is that a surprise? No? Yea, didn't think so...

I saw a video that compared a limited production 1989 Yamaha FZR750RR (OWO1) to a 2008 Yamaha R1 (A mass produced model.) The conclusion of the video was that 20 years has made a better bike. Again, yea obviously. That is the point of moving forward. But that's not what draws people to want to own an older model.

Perhaps it's the different time periods. Back when the FZR750RR was made, the 750 class was the Superbike class. That's what people wanted. That's what people looked to for the absolute top notch models. So Yamaha did just that. They made a lightweight Superbike with all the best off the shelf components and technologies of its day (Ohlins suspension, close ratio gear box, metallurgy improvements like magnesium and titanium) but it gets a lot of criticism from the riding position.

Yes it is a super uncomfortable ride for the road with it's high pegs coupled with it's leaned over clip-on position and it's spartan seat. But you have to remember. The road wasn't the aim for this bike. It was a limited production (500 or so) - bread-for-the-track all out racer.

Turn the tables 20 years and the company isn't all that about racing - it's about selling and marketing to make that bottom dollar. Superbike racing had also taken a different course. It was now about 1,000CC 4 cylinder bikes.

This meant that Yamaha could take the production YZF-R1 (first introduced in 1998 as an open class sport bike) which had been built upon since it's inception and in 2008; completely out do a 1989 FZR750RR on the track

This is but a small example of the advances and videos made regarding sport bikes but a valid one.

Call me crazy, but I think the people who pay top dollar for a 1990 Corvette ZR1 aren't paying that cause they saw a video that said the 2006 model had 130 more HP and a better chassis.....